DELGADO MUSIC DEPARTMENT

This is an old video I made for the Music Departmen, in fact this is the first project I made for my television class at Delgado Community College.

Little personal history: I didn't edit this project on Final Cut or any program that offered multiple layer timelines. I edited probably 4 hours (probably more, I can’t remember) of footage and audio. However,  the soundtracks on the old Pinnacle Studio software I was working with at the time, could, if I push it to its limit, give me 2 extra layers of sound. So, how I started was to edit my video segments first (which only allowed me one layer of video), and my first pass was also my only pass. I made all my editing decisions on that first pass, and for audio I concentrated mostly on the interviews. I had 3 different set-ups of the audio for the interviews, and the music classes, (I know that sounds a little obsessive, but it was my first time recording an interview so I wanted to cover my ass in the likelihood of chaos. And in the end, wouldya know it, I used all 3 configurations). One was a lavaliere microphone hooked up to the HD camera (this was the sound I used most of all because of the better quality), the second was a built in MIC on a mini DV (the poorest sound of all three, but had to used it in some instances), for interviews I had a 2 camera set up, the HD, the better camera, would be for close ups and the DV, the poor quality camera would be the wide shots.  Lastly I had my back up, a portable digital sound recorder I placed just out of the frame (which I used more times than I should, it saved my ass plenty of times). Anyway, I would sync up the audio by hand (a pain in the ass) and decide where I would like to overlay the audio over the video, make that pass, dump it onto a tape, delete the edit because the pinnacle studio couldn’t hold much video and was touchy about crushing without warning. I would then upload the first pass I’ve done from the tape, then start adding the music in the concert classes, which was an ordeal onto itself. The classes would play 2-to-3 different songs several times, some rotation better than others, and songs lasting a range of lengths which I had to shape into something short, but overall long enough to give the impression of the class.  This went through countless passes. Each time dumping the edit onto a tape, deleting the video on the software, uploading the pass onto the computer again, and add another audio layer, make adjustments because you can’t change them later (this explains why in the video the volume of the audio dips too low in places. Sorry.), and repeat the process again, and again. Then at last you finish up with the music score and adjust to play it over the entire video, then, you add the end credits and you are done.

So, basically, I’m bowing at the feet of Apple and Avid for creating an easier to use (video editing-wise) software, and declare them my new gods.    

Enjoy!